In search of starting pitching depth, the Giants reportedly are interested in The One That Got Away.
Six years after a hard push for Jon Lester that ultimately fell just short, the Giants are interested in adding the veteran left-hander to their rotation, according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network.
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SIGN UP HERE The Giants were one of Lester's top three choices during the 2014 offseason and made several offers, but that chase famously ended with then-GM Bobby Evans standing in a hallway and telling reporters, "We did not receive a rose." Lester ended up choosing the Chicago Cubs over the Boston Red Sox, and the signing was one of the most impactful of the last decade. Lester won 77 games in six years in Chicago, made two All-Star teams, and helped the Cubs finally win a World Series in 2016, when current Giants GM Scott Harris worked in Chicago's front office.
Lester, who turns 37 in January, is coming off two consecutive down seasons. He had a 4.46 ERA, 4.26 FIP and 1.49 WHIP in 2019, and in 12 starts last season he had a 5.16 ERA, 5.14 FIP, and just 6.2 strikeouts per nine, a career-low. Lester's fastball velocity dipped to around 89 mph in 2020.
The Giants, though, have holes to fill in their rotation. Drew Smyly fled for the Braves, and the current group has just one left-handed option (Tyler Anderson, who is arbitration-eligible). President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said last week that the Giants would look at plenty of options.
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The Giants hoped to add Lester to their title defense during the 2014 offseason and pushed hard after falling short on Pablo Sandoval and Yasmany Tomas. They sent a contingent that included Buster Posey to meet with Lester, but he called Evans late in the process and informed him that he would choose between the Red Sox, his original team in the big leagues, and Cubs, who were run by former Red Sox execs Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer.
The Giants offered Lester somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million back then. This time around, Lester is surely looking at one-year deals filled with incentives.
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